good morning. i'm chris jansing. at this hour we are just starting to get a true sense of the devastation from sandy along the east coast and the mid atlantic, and that storm is still moving inland. 7.8 million people without power and at least 17 people dead across seven states. coastal areas have been devastated. this is point pleasant, new jersey, it looks like a war zone there. debris strewn everywhere. on one street, sand from the street pushed so far ashore it's actually blocking in a jeep. >> this tidal surge, to give you an example. we had rail cars, empty freight rail cars wash up on to the new jersey turnpike. we have three urban search and rescue teams with over 50 men and women who are in atlantic city right now rescuing people. >> by the way, we're waiting for an update from chris christie.

we'll have that for you when it happens. this is seaside heights, another town along the jersey shore, where the wind and waves are still raging this morning. this is what people are waking up to on long island. water breaks the sea wall. look at these rocks everywhere. much of the damage was from high winds last night sft storm surge. fugate gave us his concern this morning. >> now with the blizzard in west virginia, our concern is primary life safety and then we'll start getting to the critical infrastructure and we'll have power outages and the list of things is enormous. first thing is keep people alive, keep people safe and rescue those in danger. >> you just heard craig fugate mention west virginia, this is the view there. more than a foot of snow has fallen and higher elevations are seeing two feet and blizzard warnings are in effect until tomorrow. let's take a look at ground zero, new york city last night.

water everywhere where there is still a construction site there. new york was one of the hardest hit places and that's where we start with ann thompson live in battery park and how are things looking in the light of day, ann? >> reporter: just take a look at this. this is what people in battery park woke up to. this is a tree that was just ripped out of the ground by hurricane sandy last night. it was absolutely brutal down here. i can tell you the storm surge which hit a new record high almost 14 feet came up over the sea wall and flooded into lower manhattan. we got done about 9:00 here. we could not leave battery park because there was no way out. every street was a river, and it took about three hours for that water to subside. before the storm surge came up, con edison turned up the power in lower manhattan and they did so to protect their equipment, but it is causing great

inconvenience for a lot of new yorkers this morning. coming down as i did from the upper east side this morning. i can tell you once you hit 28th street it is absolutely dark. there are no streetlights, no lights in the apartment buildings and no lights in the stores. people are walking around and people sort of can't believe what has happened because this kind of destruction you don't expect in a major metropolitan city and getting around today is very difficult in new york once again because there is no mass transit. seven of the subway tunnels underneath the east river have flooded. there is no train service. there is no power on metro north from manhattan to new haven and there is no bus service. the mta says it hopes to have bus service restored by tomorrow, but today there is still no reason to go to work. no reason to go out. it is not safe. there are things still flying around. the gusts down here are up to 30

miles per hour. the rains come in big bands and it is absolutely miserable, and as bad as it is, it's not nearly as bad as looking at what has happened overnight. chris? >> anne thompson who is down at the tip of manhattan, thanks so much. we are also waiting for an update from new york mayor michael bloomberg and we'll learn more about the widespread power outages throughout new york city as well as transportation problems. let's go to ron allen now. also who is in point pleasant, new jersey, what can you tell us? >> reporter: chris, take a look at the devastation all over this place. this is a street about a block and a half from the ocean and 75 yards in that direction and it is covered with sand and it goes another hundred yards in that direction or so. last night there was a huge storm surge. there are dunes that we were broadcasting from yesterday designed to protect this town. those sand dunes about 12 feet

tall, 30 feet wide were completely obliterated by the surge and the water came rushing in, carrying in all these buildings and seaside hotels and motels. the front of them was boarded up and it was completely ripped out. you can see the ocean down here ahead of me here. we're still concerned because there's a high tide coming and a possibility that more water can come rushing up these streets. last night the water was at least waist deep or so in some places and surrounding the hotel we were staying in and it is unclear to us at this point whether we can actually leave this town and go back toward the mainland. we're checking with authorities who are also trying to get a handle on what's going on. >> there are some people who are trying to assess the damage of the properties. there are some people who stayed last night despite orders to get out. everybody seems to be okay. at this point, everything is complete devastation and there you can see the tip of the hotel. we were there last night and that was intact. we were able to park our truck

down there and we had communications down there and this morning there is absolutely nothing, there's no phone service and no power. we're using emergency generators to broadcast on the air, and i think this is cut off to most people that want to come here and we have to check around and see what else is going on. >> at this point we have not had much rain this morning and just a free shower, but the winds are still pretty strong and it's still kicking up, but the waves are still very choppy and again, we're coming up to a high tide and the threat that more water could come rushing down here, and if you can imagine in your mind's eye, water this deep rushing down here last night all night and then just finally easing this morning. so people were consider concerned about what that might sxauz this morning there's devastation as far as the eye can see in many towns up and down the new jersey shore. chris, back to you.

>> ron allen, thank you so much. >> we are awaiting an update from governor chris christie later on and he's waiting to get up in the helicopter so he can survey the damage in his state. that's pretty much the situation wherever you look up along the eastern seaboard, just getting started with evaluations. >> let me bring in the democratic governor of del aware. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> tell us about your evaluation process and how your state fared. >> we have 40,000 people without power. we have plenty of flooding throughout the state bucks when we look at other states and see the damage and devastation we were spared the brunt of it. >> beach communities were obviously hit hard. what can you tell us about what happened along the shoreline? >> some of those communities are still cut off. a lot of flooding down there and these are flood-prone areas and where there are flood prone

areas they got flooded for sure. duey and bethany had to close and we have 90 flooded areas throughout the state and it's a significant storm, but compared to the losses we've seen elsewhere we feel relatively fortunate. >> people are being told to stay home. government offices are shut down. only emergency personnel are working and what's the situation in delaware? >> we had quite a significant driving restriction and we lifted it today. we still have what we call a 11 one. no penalties for being out. you shouldn't be joyriding and you can be out if you need to be out. >> jack markell, put in perpective it's not as bad as other states nearby. >> thanks very much. >> governor chris christie, just starting to update on the situation there. >> we are with you. we have a long road ahead of us,

but i have complete confidence we will come out of this better and stronger than before. this state is too tough to give in to this type of devastation and we, in the government, will be here to work with you to have new jersey completely recover. i've spoken with president obama several times. last time was at midnight last night and he assured me we'd have an expedited process with fema, and get whatever assistance he needed. he moved the expedited process this morning by declaring new jersey a major disaster area. the eight counties receiving an immediate declaration for individual and public assistance include atlantic, cape may, hudson, essex, middlesex, marmouth and union. this is not final and other counties will be added as we make the damage assessment.

the biggest issues we're facing right now in the most impacted counties are search and rescue and restoration of power. i want to make sure we're getting to new jersey for those who chose to not leave evacuated areaers on got caught in floodwaters. our priority is to help every new jerseyian. engaging in coastline rescue efforts. our swift water team is positioned in atlantic city and has begun rescue and recovery for those who remained in atlantic city. the team's ununits from central and south to union beach, middletown, belmar are beginning search and rescue operations. we saw significant tidal flooding in several areas. everywhere from jersey city to newark bay area, sayreville, moon be onningy and little ferry. in moonockie and little ferry we

dispatched teams to assist in rescues and are providing shelters to those in need. 18 members of the speed deployment are also headed there in addition to the swift water rescue team. ten high-wheeled vehicles and boats. we've a provided temporary shelter at teterboro airport. we're delivering dry clothes and blankets and working to transition them to a different shelter. we provide is upped ort to the jersey city police department, the newark fire department and the essex county sheriff's office in the face of a city wide power outage in both jersey city and newark from high tidal surge. four high-wheeled national guard vehicles were sent to jersey city from the armory to,a cyst them with evacuations after the request of jersey city chief of police tom comey. the national guard has

repositioned equipment to strategic locations across new jersey and has more than 450 high-water vehicles including humvees and heavy trucks available to assist civil authorities. they're also providing helicopters with video download capabilities to conduct reconnaissance of shorelines, the passaic rivers basins and other areas of post landfall damage assessments. there are currently over 5500 residents in state and local shelters as of our latest count. we are working to stand up shelters as we learn of more needs to the five supported shelters, two at rutgers, two at monmouth and one in morris township, new jersey. we are in the process of opening a sixth shelter at the rutgers athletic center that can support nearly 2,000 people. we want to make sure people have enough food and water for a while which is why we are working with the salvation army and the american red cross to

bring in mobile kitchens to serve thousands of meals. boxed lunches are being delivered to state shelters today. we are using fema food and water resources. the national guard has deployed soldiers and airman at the woodbridge armories for support of state-supported shelter facilities if needed. there are a vast number of new jerseyians today without power. in fact, we currently have 2.4 million new jersey households without power. this is just, so you understand, the order of magnitude here. this is twice the number of impacted households as hurricane irene. hurricane irene was 1.2 million impacted households and this is 2.4 million impacted households. 1.2 million of the 2.4 million for pse&g, 935,000 from jcp & l. 195,000 from atlantic city

electric and 45,000 from orange in rockland. during hurricane irene restoration took eight days for full restoration. for hurricane sandy, the full restoration may, in fact, take longer. full damage assessment will not be complete until 24 to 48 hours due to some of the weather delays. they cannot develop the timeframe for restoration until damage and estimates are under way and obviously these difficult weather conditions are making this more of a challenge. however the utility companies have reached out to other states for assistance and we are expecting additional linemen. servicemen and free clearing workers from states as far away as texas, indiana and folks coming in to us from canada. it will remain extremely dangerous in areas where trees and wires are down. ask people to use extreme caution and assume any wire you see down is a live wire and please, do not go near it.

there are currently 173 incidents statewide involving highway lane closures. most of these closures are results of down trees, utility poles and flooding. the highest concentration is monmouth county and no county has been spare soda, void travel unless absolutely necessary. i want to say this now to private employers. unless you can identify a safe route for your employees to get to work, i'd ask you to allow them to stay home from work today. we've deployed 800 employees from njdot to clear these incidents and we were able to open, as you know, the garden state parkway this morning for its full length. new jersey turnpike is open from exits 1 to exit 10. the turnpike authorities continue to work to clear inner roadways between interstates 10

and 14 of seven-foot high debris fields. 24 small rail cars were deposited on the northbound outer roadway in the carteret area by tidal surge. if you've driven to that area, you know it well. they're small freight rail cars off to the side of the roadway. those rail cars were picked up by the tidal surge and carried on to the elevated roadway and landed all throughout the outer roadway of the new jersey turnpike on the northbound side. additionally, the southbound ramp from exit 15w to interstate 280 has a large washout. this is currently being looked at by our engineers with a standby contractor and as soon as we assess the complete nature of the damage we'll begin repair work on that ramp.

new jersey transit service remains throughout the day today. later today new jersey transit will begin assessing the status of the system with critical infrastructure regarding the potential resumption of service. we do know this. there is major damage on each and every one of new jersey's rail lines. large sections of track were washed out on the new jersey coastline. numerous power lines and trees have fallen along new jersey transit railways across the state. several rail bridges damaged by storm surge including boats and other debris lodged on the railroad tracks and new jersey transit hubs at hoboken, secaucus and new york penn station were also impacted significantly by flooding. new jersey's transit's rail operation in carney is fully surrounded by floodwaters which

came during the height of the storm. regarding our drinking water, we are seeing numerous water supply issues because of flooding and power loss. we currently have at least ten facilities with minor to major problems. on waste water treatment facilities we have 13 facilities again from minor to major operational issues due to flooding and loss of power. commissioner martin of dp is working with all these facilities to see how we can bring them power supply, equipment and resources to help bring them back online as soon as possible. in terms of the health care facilities, a total of 91 health care facilities have reported that they lost tree power and this includes 58 care facilities and others and however, we're expecting this number to increase as people called them in, and they have an ability to

phone in issues for us. most are managing well and many are using generator power to be able to continue to care for their patients. department of health has requested 100 ambulances from the fema ambulance contract and we have received assistance from numerous other states. i'll ask before i take questions, upstairs in the conference room that we're using to manage this crisis, we just were given a look for the first time of the portions of the jersey shore by state police helicopter who was operating the cameras and relaying the images back. we looked at orderly beach, seaside heights and seaside park, all of them are completely under water. there are houses in the middle

of route 35. the amusement pier at seaside park is essentially half washed out. in other words, the roller coaster or the log plume is now in the ocean, the second pier, the more southerly pier is also significantly damaged and some of those are now in the ocean. the level of devastation at the jersey shore is unthinkable, and we know that there are many people who own homes that we evacuated who will want to get back on to the island to assess the damage to their homes. we are nowhere near able to let you back on to the island. there is no place -- i'm leaving here soon after this press conference to go and tour. there's no place for me to land on the barrier islands. so we're going have to get to

brick is about as close as i can get to see if the rest of them to see from the air. with the instability of the infrastructure on the barrier islands we haven't been able to assess the natural gas situation and we know there's no power. it would be completely unsafe for homeowners to think today or any other day going back on to those barrier islands. so we want everyone to remain patient in that reguard. i will report back in my briefing to you later today. what i i see, we'll be taking press with us on a pool basis so you can see what i see from the helicopters and report back to the public, as well, but to prepare the public for what they're going to see is beyond anything i thought i'd ever see.

terrible. and so we need to re mmain patient, let the waters recede and then we can go in to make a full assessment about rebuilding that area of the jersey shore, but it is a devastating sight right now, but we have a lot of work to do. i have absolute confidence in the fact that we'll be able to do it and do it together. i have confidence in the fact that i havehave complete suppor from the president of the united states, and it is very important for me today now that the winds let up a bit to see it myself so that when i talk to the president later today i can tell him personally exactly what i've seen to give him the full measure of the devastation that's happened to our state. no question in my mind given the reports that i've seen so far that the devastation that's happened to new jersey is beyond what's happened to anyone else, at least from the reports that i've seen so far and that comes

as no shock since the storm made landfall here. so i tell the people of the state who are able to listen to this, who have power and are watching in some way, we are going make sure that we do everything we can to get through this as quickly as possible, to restore conditions in the state to normalcy as soon as we can and you can count on the fact that i'll be here and the folks they represent every waking hour to get this going as quickly as we can, but the devastation is unprecedented, like nothing we've ever seen reported before, and so we need to keep that in mind in terms of gauging our expectations for how quickly this will happen. so that's what i have. i'm happy to take questions.

[ inaudible question ] >> new jersey governor chris christie in what can only be described as a sobering assessment in his state of what he calls unprecedented, devastating and the level of devastation at the jersey shore is unthinkable, he says 2.4 million people without power, double the number during irene and then it took eight days to restore power. this could take longer. travel is absolutely a mess. he's urging people to stay off the roads. new jersey transit, this is an area that has a lot of rail traffic has been devastated as well. there are water supply issues and he's just starting to get a handle on it, but make no mistake. what's happening in new jersey is going require a long, difficult slog going forward. we will continue to keep our ear on the questions and answers there. if there's any new information we will have it for you, and it could also be a day before stranded passengers can get to their destinations on flights.

we have a lot more coming up and we'll keep you updated right here on msnbc.

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continues right now. where is he headed next. for that we turn to msnbc dylan dreier. she's headed nowhere fast. that's the biggest issue because the storm will rain itself out over portions of pennsylvania and new york state. it's also going snow itself out over portions of ohio, maryland, west virginia. we've had reports from garrett, maryland, already 24 inches of snow. this is a strange hybrid type of storm and it's transitioned into this'eastnor'easter-type situat with the heavy rain and the gusty winds and it is almost over the entire eastern section of the country all at once. there's flooding up in new hampshire and road closures back through west virginia because of the snow. so this whole system will

continue to produce snowfall rates at about one to two inches per hour across portions of ohio and also into west virginia, where several inches of snow has already fallen. we are also still dealing with those gusty winds in new york city itself. notice how it's a southerly wind. we've already made it through the high tide in the battery area at about 9:07 this morning so we are going see some improvements and the flooding concern is not over yet because we do still have this southerly component to the wind and not so much rain is the issue and the high tide comes again at 9:00 this evening and that will raise water levels once again and then we go to long island sound and high tides not until 12:30 this afternoon and still with the southerly component to the wind, we'll see more flooding and also southern connecticut, as well. rainfall hasn't been an issue in new york city and most of the time it's almost been a wind-driven drizzle, but down

through portions of baltimore we've picked up nearly seven inches of rain and it will continue in that area and inland flooding becomes a concern and mountain snow through west virginia is something that we'll be talking about almost for the next couple of days. >> thank you so much. with nearly 8 million people without power and thousands evacuated, the red cross, as they always are, will be a big part of picking up the pieces. sam killy is with the regional state of new york. >> we just heard chris christie, the amount of damage and the number of people in need is really unthinkable. tell us what you think you're facing right now. >> this has been a devastating storm for us and it hit one of the most populous areas in the country. there were 11,000 people staying in 258 shelters across 16 different states and of course, a lot of that damage is right here in new york. we're getting reports as the sun

has come out of more and more communities that have been impacted. we know that the amount of people we have in our shelters is going triple and sadly, there have been people's lives that have been taken in this storm. our hearts are with them as we sit here and help our neighbors because this will be a long response for us. >> we heard from governor christie that there's a need for food as well as for shelter and give us an idea of what your priorities are. >> right now our priority is making sure that people are already in their shelters. if people can stay safely in their homes we ask them to do that and to keep their roadways clear and there are down wires, we want clean-up crews in emergency response vehicles to get out there and help people. if people have to evacuate their homes and we know people, specially in places like long island, they'll have to do that today. we want them to think what they'll need at the shelter. they may want to think about ing bring medications, bringing a

pillow, change of clothe, high jean items. it can get boring in a shelter, bring books for the children, books to read. we need people to realize that they need to be patient. this is going to be a long response for the red cross and it covers a very wide area. help is on the way and we need people to help join us in this response. >> when you say a long response, based on your experience, what are we looking at potentially, sam? >> i've been with the red cross for six years and i've been to hurricanes and tornados and when you think of the damage that we have in the most populous area of the country, we have entire neighborhoods that are totally devastated and destroyed and places like queens and that's a lot of people to worry about and the red cross will be here and we have more help on the way and we'll do everything we can to make sure that people get the help they need working along with our government partners as well as community partners like the southern baptists, naacp and other americans who are ready to help their neighbors in need. >> so for people who need help, what's the best way for them to

find it? >> people can go to our website, redcross.org and we really need help from people right now. this is going to be a large and costly operation. we encourage people to donate to the red cross financially by going to redcross.org and texting the word redcross to 09999, and we need people to donate blood. >> we've seen hospitals that have had trouble and they spent the entire evening moving patients out so this has had a broad impact and sam killy, thank you for coming over and we wish you well in what will be a long road ahead for everyone. if you read only one thing this morning. this super storm has produced an unlikely star. mayor bloomberg's sign language interpreter, her very animated style has legions of fans have people placing bets over whether she'll spawn a saturday night live parody. it's on the facebook page at

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a dangerous situation in midtown manhattan. strong winds caused a crane to collapse. look at this, on the 70th floor of a luxury high-rise under construction. you can see that massive crane arm just dangling and nothing to hold it down. buildings around the crane were immediately evacuated as emergency workers kept watch overnight. let's go to cnbc's robert frank who was on the scene. what's the status right now? >> thanks, chris. i just spoke with the fire department chief on scene and it remains a very dangerous situation here. basically, until the weather improves they can't even send inspectors up there to see what to do. we'll walk you through the latest plan -- if you look at that top connector there between the crane and the building, what they're going to do is walk

crews across that sky plank, go up the stairs and they'll try to inspect it and once the winds die down to below 30 miles an hour, they'll try to tie that crane to the support piece and that alone could take days and that's only when the weather improves. meantime, as you mentioned, the entire area remains evacuated from sixth avenue to eighth avenue on 07th street. the mayor said it's too early to assign blame and this was a very high-profile building before the crane incident. it is the tallest residential sky scraper in manhattan home to several billionaire who paid $90 million for some of the top penthouses and in addition, the general contractor is the same company that had to pay millions of dollars in fines for an overbilling scandal. for now, everyone's watching, waiting and hoping that this crane does not come down. back to you guys. >> cnbc's robert frank. thank you for that update and

super storm sandy is causing a travel nightmare. 6,000 flights have been canceled for today, raising the total to nearly 16,000. there are headaches on the rails as well. amtrak canceling for a second day. let's bring in orbitz.com senior editor john tornatore. good morning. >> how long will it take to get things back to normal? do we even have an idea at this point? >> no one knows exactly when air travel will get back to normal, but certainly it won't be until late this week -- this coming weekend or early next week. it all just depends on when the airports in the new york metro area open back up and flights start resume schedules and certainly travelers who are planning to head out later this week should keep checking back with their airlines, but don't expect it to be so early next week. >> is there any trick of the trade if you're unlucky enough

to be stuck somewhere? is there any way to get to where you need to go sooner? >> well, in a situation like this it's really tough, you know? in the new york airports there aren't even airplanes on the ground. a lot of people are looking at alternative airports that may be open and getting to those, but right now, a lot of people are just simply stuck and will have to wait it out. >> it isn't just u.s. air travel and it's a global impact as well, isn't it? >> it absolutely is. when you look at the hub air parts you have in these major metro areas on the east coast, we have a lot of international flights that connect into them and so right now even, you have a lot of people that are on connecting flights that are staying in airport hotels near places like newark airport just waiting to get on their flights to get to their destinations.

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i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios trying to avoid appearing overly political during a disaster, both presidential candidates canceled campaign events they were to attend today. instead, governor romney and paul ryan will hold what they're calling hurricane relief events in ohio and wisconsin. bill clinton continues campaigning for team obama. he'll be in minnesota and colorado while the president focuses on disaster response from the white house. >> the election will take care of itself next week. right now our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives. >> i want to bring in perry bacon and lynn sweet, washington bureau chief for "the chicago

sun-times." good morning. >> good morning. >> every word is being used for a political priss sxm thm and t not lost on david axelrod. >> we're obviously going to lose a bunch of campaign time, but that's what has to be and we'll try to make it up on the back end. so for us, it's not a matter of optics. it's a matter of a responsibility and governor romney can decide for himself what he wants to do. >> having said that, lynn, you cannot ignore the calendar. we're a week from election day. what are the stakes for this election? >> well, the highest, if it disrupts early voting and absentee balloting that each of the campaigns that counted on in the early states. it appears at the very first brush here that that may not have as high an impact since most of the damage is concentrated in other areas and new york state which is seen as safe for obama. mainly for scheduling purposes,

i wouldn't expect to see either romney or obama in new hampshire or virginia again, and here's the rule of thumb in this is that for the president, good government is good politics and it would have been counter productive if he was out at a rally today because would still be a storm backlash. these events that romney and paul ryan have dealing with storm relief, that is a compromise between having a formal campaign event and going, just canceling the whole day of events and it's a delicate line and everyone has to be treading this close to the election in the wake of such an enormous disaster. >> singing the president's praises and how he's handling this, his toughest critic governor chris christie, take a listen. >> he deserves great credit. yesterday, personally, three times, he gave me his number at the white house and told me to call him if i needed anything and he absolutely means it. >> so, perry, do you think this helps the president?

he does have a real role here. mitt romney doesn't. >> i don't think it makes a big impact on the election. the things went really badly. i remember hurricane katrina hurt president bush's tenure for the rest of the administration, as long as the president handles it well and nothing bad happens that's fine for him and it kind of keeps things where they are and on an even keel, politically. >> officials in new hampshire have been urging emergency responders to get ballots in now in case they can't make it to the polls on election day. there's also been talk, lynn, that there may be power outages that will affect polling places and whether they'll have to count ballot by hand, and it all seemed a little ridiculous yesterday, but now that we're seeing the extent of the damage it does seem, if not an impact on the presidential race and key senate races and congressional races. >> this is going into some new

legal train and i expect squads of lawyers to be studying and keeping elections out in the open later and the counting of ballots if it comes to that election day. elections are pretty hard to administer in the best circumstances, we know that. if theray any question about access to vote that will become a very big, local story and the elections aren't administrated by local officials so there's no one size fits all rule for anybody. that's yet campaign is presidential and the state-based campaigns are going to be vigilant if they think there's any impact on people getting to the polls or counting them. >> and when we look at what's been going on, and i don't know if you had a chance to listen, perry, but the assessment of governor chris christie in new jersey alone was devastating and i was on all night long and all of the officials i spoke to pretty much said this is much worse than we anticipated. is less more in the case of a

challenger, mitt romney, keep a low profile while this is happening. you've seen romney cancel events and romney has had a job to do in terms of storm relief and i think it is smart to play down the politics for a while. we've had basically two years and most americans are -- and i think it's good for romney and the president for that matter to play into politics and focus hurricane relief right now. >> thanks to both of you. >> today's tweet of the day comes from abbey huntsman, she's the daughter of former presidential candidate jon huntsman. even just days before the election, sandy is a reminder that political ideology is second to the fact that weir all americans. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans,

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the captain of the hms bounty is still missing after the tall ship sank at sea in the middle of the hurricane. one crew member is dead and 14 others were rescued by the coast

guard yesterday. lester holt joins me live from elizabeth city, north carolina. lester, what's the latest there? >> reporter: chris, there are coast guard aircraft and vessels now on scene. more than 100 miles off hatteras still searching for the captain of the hms bounty. he had ordered his crew to abandon ship after the replica of the original bounty began taking on water. they lost propulsion. a coast guard c-130 like the one behind me was dispatched into scene and got into contract with the crew and they had to abandon ship and two helicopters were launched from here in elizabeth city fighting incredibly poor visibility and very high winds and tropical storm-force winds as they made their wayan hour out of here to the scene. they found one survivor floating in the water. all of them had donned their cold water survival suits. the remainder were in rafts and

they were able to bring 14 to safety and that left two missing late yesterday. they found one of the missing and the body, as it turned out, of a 42-year-old woman, crew member. they performed cpr on her the entire flight back to elizabeth city, but she was declared dead. the captain, as we say, is still missing. a lot of questions about this trip. they had left connecticut on tuesday in route to st. petersburg, florida. they were reportedly in constant contact with the national hurricane center trying to skirt around the storm. it's not clear whether their problem was with the storm itself or with a technical problem with the vessel that then made them susceptible to the storm, but nevertheless, they reached deep troubles and there were waves of 18 to 30 feet high when those choppers came in. they deployed rescue swimmers actually into the water and lifted up, one chopper lifting up one survivor and a remarkable achievement and remarkable

recovery. the c-130s like the one behind me in the air right now along with other aircraft and ships looking for that last crew member. chris? >> i was watching as you were reporting on this yesterday, lester it looked to me to be a harrowing rescue not that what so much of what the coast guard does is not, but was this particularly difficult? how fraught was this rescue? >> reporter: interestingly, i asked one of the pilots how do you maintain a hover when you're in the 58-mile an hour winds. in some ways it's easier it gives them a pretty stable platform. their biggest worry were the waves coming up. they like to hover 50 to 60 feet off the ocean, but the ocean was heaving below them. the co-pilot was constantly calling out corrections and calling out the timing of the waves so they can effect this rescue without putting the crew on the chopper in jeopardy. it was quite harrowing. >> another remarkable job that we've seen by the coast guard.

thank you so much for that update. that will wrap up this hour of "jansing & company." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up. good morning, thomas. >> good morning. good morning, everyone. surveying sandy's wrath, this super storm leaving 18 dead, millions without power in 13 states and tens of billions of dollars in damage, but the storm system is not finished just yet. we'll bring you a full update on the storm track and then the fema response. president obama signs major disaster declarations for new jersey and new york this morning, but how fast will people get the relief they need. meanwhile, the president and mitt romney stay off the campaign trail, but with one week out how will the lasting effects of sandy impact election day, that and much more coming up at the top of the hour. ♪ anything for you ♪

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